How do I go from Windows 8.1 directly to Windows 10 V.1511 on my HP Stream 7

Question

I've had this tablet for a while now and am ready to take the plunge and try Windows 10 on it. Up till now, I've kept all of the Win 10 upgrade stuff off of this tablet completely or disabled it if it can't be uninstalled. Do I now have to go back and install/initialize all of that stuff? Do I need to do an in-place upgrade through Windows Update, or can I use something like a USB OTG thumb drive and the latest Win10 ISO and go straight to a clean install? There's very little on this tablet that I absolutely need to keep (though I will create a recovery image and backups of key files), but I'm also wondering if I can roll the OS back to Windows 8.1 if Win10 turns out to be a dog.

Answer 1

Update: I decided to take the plunge over the weekend and install Windows 10 on an HP Stream 7 tablet. It had Windows 8.1 with Bing on it and I wasn't using it for very much of anything, and it was fully backed up, so I figured I had nothing to lose if things didn't work out with the switch to Windows 10.

So I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and ran it, choosing the option to update the machine I was working on, and let the process take its course. After nearly 2 hours, I was pleasantly surprised when it actually restarted and booted Windows 10 with all of my previous files and desktop programs still there. It was only at this point that I learned that Microsoft had pulled the Fall Update from their servers and what I had installed was the original July release with a bunch of updates.

The next day or so, I discovered that the Fall Update was again available for downloading, so I decided to go through the whole process again, having just configured my tablet the way I wanted it, including uninstalling a bunch of the useless bundled apps and changing several default programs to desktop apps I prefer to use.

Again, the process proceeded fairly smoothly and booted Windows 10 after about 90 minutes. At this point, I discovered that CCleaner had been uninstalled without notice (for supposed incompatibility), several bundled apps I had removed were reinstalled, and some of my default apps were changed back again to the bundled apps I had no intention of using.

Reinstalling CCleaner fixed the phantom incompatibility problem, and more time wasted reversing the installed/default apps situation restored my tablet to the way I had it initially.

I'll be using this tablet to test Windows 10 over the next few months. Hopefully Microsoft will sort out their procedures and stop changing settings and/or reinstalling deleted apps in future updates.

Answer 2

EDIT: Microsoft has removed the version 1511 update from the media creation tool. It can only be received through Windows Update, but I'm unsure when this is going to be rolled out

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OLD POST:

Download the Media Creation tool from the Microsoft Website (under Windows 10) and use that to perform an in-place upgrade to Windows 10, or to download an ISO to put onto the thumb-drive if you prefer. The Media Creation Tool will automatically download the latest version of Windows - in this case, version 1511.